Operators of boats and larger vessels conventionally mount instruments such as depth finders, lorans, radar scopes, radio transceivers, and similar devices on some portion of the boat such as a cowling. In most instances, the upper surface of the cowling is not horizontal, but slopes from the center of the boat toward its opposite sides. For many purposes it is undesirable to mount an instrument or other device in any position other than horizontal. Accordingly, the prior art contains many examples of mounting devices which are designed to enable an instrument or other device to occupy a horizontal position even though the surface on which it is mounted is not horizontal. In most instances, however, the known prior art devices are difficult to adjust, have an extremely limited range of adjustment, or both.
Some boats are constructed in a manner which offers little, if any, deterrent to theft of instruments and devices of the kind referred to above. Some of the mounting devices therefor contemplate removal of the mounting device from the boat when the latter is left unattended, whereas other mounting devices are constructed in such manner that the device itself may be separated from its mounting structure. In either case, the removal and replacement of the instrument or the like from known mounting devices are time consuming, often difficult, tedious, and require the use of tools.
An object of the present invention is to provide a mounting device for instruments and the like which overcomes the problems and deficiencies referred to above.